Outtaverse part 8: The incredible edible slayer
by Madcap13
Summary: It’s all about Kennedy being a flake and Buffy kicking ass.


Outtaverse part 8: The incredible edible slayer.

Summary : It's all about Kennedy being a flake and Buffy kicking ass.

Disclaimer : Pretend that I own this and I'll laugh at you.

Feedback : Not expecting much for this one. It's kinda lame but read it anyway.

Warning : Has a little dismemberment, some cussing and a little insanity but I don't think it's what you would call excessive for BTVS.

Recap : After Buffy exorcised Faith out of Xander's body, the next Slayer was called, Kennedy. Yeah, that girl which no one seemed to like in season seven. In part6, we crossed over with Stargate and Charmed and some of the characters from those shows are in this episode.

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On board an air force owned Lears jet, the ride was bumpy but bearable.

Buffy was sleeping in her seat as Giles and Joyce watched her toss and turn.

"She blames herself for what happened." said Joyce.

Giles nodded, "I know. What happened was out of her control but she doesn't see it that way. It's both her greatest asset and her curse. She takes on so much responsibility."

"I know there's a lot Buffy keeps from me but did you know about Dawn?"

"No." Giles replied quickly, "None of us did. I swear. In any case, none of us could have foreseen the arrival of Glorificus."

Joyce nodded grimly, "That poor man. Do you know what they're going to do with him?"

"Since he has some experience in the field of mental health, he's been assigned to work in a CIA mental institution for patients with sensitive information. From what I've been told they will be able to keep watch on him there very effectively."

"I don't mean to sound harsh but if he knew consciously knew about his situation, how come he didn't just commit suicide?"

"He couldn't." Giles told her, "He attempted suicide once and that is what broke down the spell keeping Glorificus at bay. Any time he tried after that, she would just regain control."

"How horrible." Joyce said squeamishly, "The only reason he existed was to be a prison for that evil inside him and he couldn't do anything about it. I don't think I could handle that."

Giles nodded as he watched Buffy flinch from something in her sleep, "Yes, it would require a remarkable strength."

Inside Buffy's mind, she spun around as she found herself in a desert where time jumped awkwardly like a Marilyn Manson music video. This wasn't any desert she knew.

There were no cacti or tufts of wiry bush. This desert wasn't a place of life, just a sea of rolling burnt sand.

But she knew there was something here to destroy her.

Her head snapped to the side when she thought she saw something move but there was nothing there.

She kept looking in that direction until she heard the wind say "I've found you."

With wide eyes, she turned and started running. In a blind panic, she ran faster than she knew she could run. She turned around for a second to see if the voice was behind her and when she looked back, she skidded to a halt in front of the image of her dead sister, Dawn.

"Dawn." Buffy said, "What are you doing here?"

"We asked you to do one simple thing and you failed us."

"There's something out here." Buffy told her, looking around to spot it, "We've got to hide."

Dawn walked closer to Buffy and she noticed her younger sister didn't have any of the warmth to her that she did in life.

"This is your fate." Dawn told her, "To be hunted down and killed for what you couldn't do. You have the power and you didn't save me. Your own sister!"

"Dawn, I'm sorry. I tried."

"There's a place in hell for people like you."

Buffy sobbed as she felt her unseen pursuers closing in, her panic was reaching a fever pitch, "We've got to leave, please."

"It's too late." said Dawn as she covered Buffy's temples with the palms of her hands, "I'm inside you now."

Buffy stared at her sister and saw a stranger.

"DAWN! NO!" Buffy screamed as she woke up and found everyone in the small airplane staring at her.

"Nightmare." She explained quickly, "Sorry."

"Oh Buffy." Joyce said softly.

It was then that was when Buffy saw that she had somehow destroyed the two seats in front of her and in her hands she held the arm rests which she had broken off her own chair.

OXOXOX

On the other side of America, in Cleveland, an Englishman and a teenage girl were walking down some mean streets.

"Is shis really a good idea?" Kennedy asked her watcher.

Michael Armitage looked at his charge oddly, "There's something different about you."

Kennedy shrugged innocently.

"Have you been talking to boys behind my back again?"

Kennedy blinked at him, "Huh?"

"I've been reading that some girls, upon being called, grow an unusually strong attraction to the opposite sex. Is that the case?"

"No more than ushual." Kennedy said with an obvious impediment.

Michael looked at Kennedy with a frown, "Why are you talking like that?"

"Like what?" Kennedy asked.

"Say she sells seashells on the seashore."

"Why? What does that have to do with Shlaying? Ohh, damnit."

"What's happened to your voice? Are you chewing bubble gum?"

Kennedy groaned and poked out her tongue to she the piercing in it.

"I goh muh tongue pierced. Ish still a bit shenshi-ive."

"Why on God's green earth would you do that?"

Kennedy shrugged, "You remember how a few days we were in that dingy motel room with the tattoo parlor across the road? Well, when you were ashleep, I got bored and had my tongue pierced."

Michael frowned, "You didn't go into the strip club next to it, did you?"

Kennedy acted shocked convincingly, "Why would I do that? It wasn't a ladies night when we were there. All they'd have is naked women."

Michael sighed and rubbed his eyes. While he was doing this, Kennedy took the chance to smile evilly behind his back. She stopped immediately as a vampire cross their path.

"I knew this wasn't a good idea." said Kennedy in fear.

"Just remember your training." Michael told her.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like Jennifer Lopez?" a voice asked from behind them.

Kennedy spun around to find another vampire standing there with a big grin on it's face.

"No because I don't." Kennedy told the vampire, standing up to them.

The vampire shrugged and attacked, pushing Kennedy over and falling on top of her.

She stopped the vampire from biting her in the neck by wedging an elbow between their bodies. While it was fruitlessly tried to bite her, she reached down for the stake in her pants pocket.

The vampire sensed this and stopped her hand from finding what it wanted and tried pushing away the arm blocking him. Kennedy twisted her arm around so her elbow was jabbing into his neck and she pulled out the cross from around her neck with the same arm. Then twisted her arm again as the vampire wrestled her elbow away and her hand landed on his neck.

At first it didn't stop him but then the burning got too much and he backed off her, screaming in pain from where the cross burnt his neck.

When he got upright, Kennedy kicked his feet out and he fell back, hitting the back of his head on a trashcan on his way down.

Kennedy sat up as he fell down and before the vampire fell on her again, she had hit it in the heart with the stake she had finally freed from her pocket.

Groaning, Kennedy slowly got to her feet in obvious discomfort and told her watcher, "You could've helped."

"Kennedy." Michael called, "Run!"

Kennedy gasped as she found her watcher being held back by a gang of vampires.

In the front was a grinning black guy wearing a reasonably nice black suit who said in a slightly snobbish British accent, "So it's true. The Slayer has lost her powers."

"Still strong enough to slay you." Kennedy spat back, although as she counted the numbers of vampires that faced her.

The lead vampire laughed, "I surprised you bet Greg. He's just risen but still, you're just human now, aren't you?"

"You did this to me?" Kennedy asked.

"No but I wish I did."

"Kennedy." Michael called to her again, "Run, you stupid girl!"

Kennedy's feet were walking her backwards before she knew that they were and then she turned around and ran for her life.

The master vampire laughed and leaned against a wall, watching her run off.

When she turned the corner at the end of the alleyway, he turned to her vampire followers and frowned.

"Doesn't anyone want to chase her?" he asked.

Getting the hint, two of the vampires broke from the rest and started running after Kennedy.

OXOXOX

A generic Sunnydale cemetery.

"Come back here!" Faith yelled as she ran off after a tall stringy vampire, leaving Willow and Tara in the dust.

"Faith! Wait!" Willow yelled after her and she looked back to see them get confronted by two more vampires.

Faith ignored this, judging that they could at least take down two vampires.

Tara swung the scythe and missed. The vampire backhanded her and knocked her to the ground.

" Tara!" Willow screamed and brought up the goa'uld palm weapon and blew the vampire off it's feet and slamming it into a cemetery monument, stunning it for at least a while.

When Willow's vamp ran at her, she jabbed the stake into it's chest and it went down, screaming at her and knocking her down with it.

"I'll kill you!" the vampire yelled at her, using his weight to pin her down and pointing her palm device away from him with one of his hands.

"That was close." he told her as he pulled the stake out of his chest, a little too much to the side to hit it's heart, "And because you're so frisky, I've got a special treat for you."

"I'm sorry." Willow told him, "Maybe if I just try again I'll hit the heart this time."

" Willow." Tara mumbled as she forced herself onto all fours, still dazed from her attack.

Before Tara could be any use, her vampire pulled her back by the shoulders and pulled her hair away from her neck in preparation to bite.

" Tara! No." Willow screamed as the vampire bit her lover from behind and her precious lifeblood streamed freely down her front.

"Watch it. You're next." the vampire on top of Willow laughed.

Then he was dust and Buffy was standing over Willow.

Willow blinked, "Buffy?"

" Tara needs you." Buffy told her, gesturing with her hands to where Tara was lying on the ground. She wasn't moving but at least she wasn't being bitten anymore.

Quickly, Willow took out her goa'uld healing device from one of her pouches and slipped it onto her hand. Then she sealed the bite wound on Tara's neck and flipped her over to check for more damage.

" Tara." Willow said worriedly, "Speak to me baby."

"I don't feel so good. My head is all whooshy." Tara said as she tried to stay awake.

Buffy looked this over, slightly peeved, "It's a whole lot easier with you guys helping but try not to get yourselves in too much trouble. Going vampire slaying when it's just you two is just stupid."

"We were with Faith but she disappeared somewhere." said Willow as she looked around and spotted Faith bounding up.

"Hey B!" Faith said cheerfully, "What's up?"

Buffy looked at Faith with a frown, "You're slaying in my place?"

Faith chuckled, "Nah. I'm just keeping Red alive. She's promised she'd try to fix my robot if I patrol as long as you were out of commission. And hey! you're in commission now so it looks like pimp-daddy Willow's got some work to do."

"Are you sure you should be out patrolling?" Tara asked Buffy with concern clearly shown in her soulful eyes while Willow held her in a sitting position.

"I could ask you the same thing." Buffy said, unimpressed with their performance, "I'm the slayer, not a retard. You don't need to baby me."

"Yeah, B's tough." Faith told them as she wrapped her arms around Buffy's shoulder, "You're trying to coddle a pitbull."

"Shut up, you. You just want your toy back." Willow told Faith.

Faith nodded unashamedly, "Yeah but B is tough. A woman of steel. Nothing can touch her. But hey, if you want some help, B, I'll hang. Got nothing else to do on a Tuesday."

Buffy looked at Faith, analyzing her. She seemed a little different from normal. Xander must have rubbed off a bit from the spell they shared.

"No. That's fine." Buffy told Faith, "Go home. All of you."

Faith looked a bit disappointed at first then shrugged, "Alright people, move like you've got a purpose. Come on, pay me my robot."

"It might take a while to fix." Willow told Faith, "I'm still not sure what's wrong with it yet."

"Then find out what's wrong with it." Faith told Willow as she ruffled her red hair, "Use that hot, sexy love machine you call a brain."

Willow frowned and patted her hair back to normal, "Maybe after we get Tara home. And then, only if I feel like it."

Faith smirked, "I'll keep annoying you until you do. Remember that I can get away with half as much sleep as you."

Willow sighed, "Fine. Whatever. But later."

The two witches righted themselves to leave and Buffy walked off into the cemetery to let them go. She vaguely heard Faith asking about S&M upgrades for the bot and she mentally blocked out the conversation after that.

Then she stopped silently and looked around.

"Spike." Buffy said, almost a growl.

"Easy." Spike said as he came out of the shadow of a mausoleum, "I just wanted to see you upright for myself."

"Well, as you can see I'm fine. Now go away. I've got a job to do."

"Good. I'd much rather patrol with you than amateur hour over there." Spike told her, cocking his head back towards the three girls who were leaving the scene in the distance.

"You really can't take a hint. No, hang on. Go away isn't a hint. It's a demand. Go away."

Spike walked in front of her, stopping her walking away and said "Buffy. You shouldn't be out here."

"It's what I'm made for."

"That's a load of bollocks and you know it." Spike told her angrily then calmed himself, "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't come to argue I just came to say I'm sorry."

Buffy stared at him weakly. He wasn't joking. He looked somber, serious, pained. That didn't mean he couldn't have been acting.

"What's this?" Buffy asked, "You're a vampire. Vampires don't get sorry. You need a conscience to be sorry."

"I uh, I know! But that's what I'm feeling." Spike told her and looked around to make sure no one was listening.

"You can't feel that. So push off."

"Wait. I do. I heard something. Someone told me about this."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Okay. Let it all out. Give me your sob story about how you're sorry. Hey, are you also sorry for killing thousands of people and truckloads of little kittens?"

"Well, no." Spike said as he rubbed his chin in thought, "But I am sorry. I've got proof."

Buffy looked at him skeptically and Spike explained himself, "It's about souls. You see, everyone who has a soul is like a beacon for evil. Evil, like me, is attracted to good to extinguish their souls, to blind the light they have inside. It's because they're painful to us. Souls are so bright that they burn themselves into everything else. If you're evil and you hang around good for too long then you can sort of become good, by proximity."

"That's the biggest load of rubbish I've heard all year." Buffy said blankly, "Now will you go away?"

Spike sighed, "Okay, I just made it up. But I am sorry."

"About what?" Buffy asked tiredly.

"About Dawn." Spike replied as he looked down at the grass, "I keep thinking I could've done something to stop what happened.

"Spike. Go home." Buffy told the vampire, "You're not getting any pity here."

Spike nodded, "Wasn't expecting any. But my point is if I'm still feeling broken up about it then you shouldn't be out here alone in your emotional state. That's a quick way to get dead."

"You're really looking to get staked by me, aren't you?" Buffy asked, "I swear, if you don't go now then I'm going to make you wish you had."

Spike backed off but said "You don't stare at the wall for a week then act like nothing happened."

"That was from the spell." Buffy shot back.

"Sure it was." Spike scoffed, "It had absolutely nothing to do with your sister dying and you turning into a basket case. I get it, Buffy. I really do. What happened hurt you. You might be stronger than me. You might be quicker than me. But you're still human and that's why you're not ready for this yet."

"Since when did you care about me?" Buffy asked accusingly.

"I don't know!" Spike shot back, "It must be all these beatings you've given me. You keep doing that and people eventually like it."

Buffy looked away in disgust, "How long did it take you to think up that come back?"

Spike smirked, "You know I'm right."

Buffy sighed and said "I just don't get it."

"Get what?"

"This. You. Everything! I just don't get it anymore. We should all be dead. Why aren't we?"

Spike raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, I seriously think you need some more rest."

Buffy sighed, "The day it happened, when Glory came, I had a vision. I didn't understand it in time but in it, Dawn is taken away from us and the sky glows blue, then we all die. We all die horribly. All of that happened, except for us dying."

"And you're complaining?" Spike asked, "Don't know about you but I'm glad Tell's plan fell through. Got himself killed in the process too."

Buffy blinked at him, "Tell?"

"You didn't know?" Spike asked, "No one told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Tell was the Seeker. Angelus found his gauntlet next to Dawn."

"No he wasn't." said Buffy, shaking her head, "No, that doesn't make sense."

"Buffy, he was the bad guys behind it all. For the bits sake I wish he wasn't."

They both stood there for a while until Buffy said "I'm going home. I don't need a bodyguard."

"Suit yourself." Spike told her as he watched her go.

He took a drag on the cigarette in his hand, rolled his eyes and followed her home from a distance.

"Someone should just stake me and put me out of my bloody misery." he griped to himself.

OXOXOX

Cleveland again.

Kennedy was lying in an empty subway car as it sped along its line. The doors had closed just in time for her to dodge being a meal. She was still breathing hard from the run the vampires had given her.

Her stop was coming up so she stood up slowly as her muscles ached.

She felt that something wasn't right but her slayer instincts were offline so she wasn't sure what to make of it. She turned around and the gasped when she looked through the pairs of windowed doors that separated each car and saw one of her undead pursuers making his way towards her.

Before he saw her, she slammed herself to the wall and started breathing hard again.

Then she ran for the head of the car, to run from the approaching vampire.

Kennedy looked back for a second to see that he had noticed her and now he was running too, chasing her much faster than she could run.

She opened the twin doors, ran through them and they closed automatically behind her, hopefully slowing his passage.

By the time she got to the next set, the vampire was already opening the doors she just closed.

He opened the doors and ran through the cab, enjoying the chase. He pulled open the first door to the next set and walked through.

That was when Kennedy kicked him in the head and he fell through the space in between the two cars and was crushed under the wheels with just the slightest thud.

Kennedy dropped down from where she had wedged herself between the walls of the two cars with her hands.

"Vampires are so stupid." Kennedy said with a grin as she entered the front most cab and the subway car slowed for her stop.

Sapped of energy, she stumbled out onto the platform and started the journey back to her hotel room, to safety.

"Hello, pretty little girl." said a distinctly evil voice.

Kennedy pulled out the little single-hand crossbow from her jacket and spun around to come intimately face to face with another vampire.

She fired and the vampire winced.

"Bitch!" he yelled and pushed her over so that she landed on the steps out of the subway.

Kennedy winced too, having hurt something and only knowing that it was in the general area of her spine.

The vampire reached down and pulled the arrow out of his leg with a grunt.

That was when Kennedy threw her stake.

"H-Hey!" The vampire yelled in disbelief as the stake actually lodged into his arm, sharp end first.

As he pulled it out, Kennedy threw a vial of holy water, using up the last of her slayer arsenal.

The vial broke on his shoulder and he howled in pain and battered where it splashed but it's effect on him was short lived.

Getting to her feet, she pulled out a can of mace, something her watcher didn't know that she had brought, and she sprayed the vampire in the face with it.

The vampire went down screaming and thrashing.

Kennedy took this as a chance to get out of there, hoping the mace would mean he wouldn't be able to track her scent.

OXOXOX

Kennedy fumbled with the keys to her hotel room with shaking hands and finally unlocked the door.

Closing the door behind her, she slumped against it and sighed in relief.

"Keep it together, Ken." she told herself.

With a new calm she walked over to her watchers bed and unlocked the combination on a briefcase.

She fished through the top section where her watcher kept maps, checkbooks and the other mundane items until she found a little black book.

She looked through it until the found the number she was looking for.

Pulling the phone off the nightstand and onto her lap, she punched in a long distance number and waited for a reply.

"Hello. You have reached the watchers council. How may I assist you?" an articulate female voice asked from England.

"This is Kennedy, the Slayer. My watcher's been kidnapped by vampires and my powers aren't working. I don't know who handles this sort of thing but I really need some help here."

The secretary floundered for a second then replied "Y-yes. I know who to contact. Hold please."

While on hold, the phone played some incredibly subdued and quiet music which Kennedy not only didn't recognize but could hardly hear properly.

Kennedy took in a deep breath and held it as she tried to calm her nerves.

"Hello? Kennedy?" a flustered man asked, almost angry, "What are you doing calling at this time in the morning? I'll have you know that I was asleep."

"I've got a situation here. My watcher just got kidnapped by a gang of vampires and I've got no powers."

"Oh well, uh, I see. That's not good."

"No. It's not. What are you going to do about it?"

"Hmm. Let me see now." the watcher on the line said as Kennedy heard him flick through some pages across the line, "It seems that we don't have anyone in Cleveland and the earliest we could get somewhere there is in four days."

"Four days!" Kennedy screamed into the phone, "Didn't you hear me! I need help now! My watcher just got dragged off. They're going to kill him or even turn him."

"Yes, Michael Armitage. I remember him well. It will be a shame to lose such an able watcher but these things can't be helped."

"Can't be helped? Don't you have anyone who can do something? Anything!"

"Dreadful as that is, all of our teams are busy at the moment. We're very busy at the moment. I'm afraid all you can do is wait there until we come for you."

"I-I can't! Haven't you been listening to a thing I've said?"

"Ooh sorry. Must go. I have an important call on the other line that I simply must answer. Good luck."

Kennedy's mouth fell open as she was hung up on.

"FUCK!" she screamed, getting up and started kicking the bed. Then she stopped when she stubbed her toe and fell over in pain.

Sobbing and fuming at the same time, she hobbled over to her side of the room and pulled out one of her suitcases. After unclipping the locks, she took out a sterling silver pen that was a gift by a girl she knew who was in training to be a watcher.

It wasn't just a material gift but a reminder than the pen is mightier than the sword. While Slayers have superpowers, the things they fight have them too and it is the knowledge that a Slayer has learnt and uses that makes the difference in battle.

As soon as the watcher to be made this point, the potential next to Kennedy at the gift giving said that it wasn't what you know that was important but who you know. If the Slayers didn't have the watchers or the watchers didn't have the slayer, they would both be in major trouble because teamwork gets more done than grand acts by individuals.

Kennedy frowned as she looked at the pen, not really knowing which side she believed in but knowing that in her current situation it was better to know people than to know things.

She unscrewed the pen in half and removed the ink refill which had a hidden piece of paper wrapped around it. That scrap of paper was something she had kept hidden from her Watcher. If he knew she had it, she didn't want to know what he would do.

Slowly and carefully, she unfolded Buffy's phone number in Sunnydale.

OXOXOX

Summers household, Sunnydale.

As Buffy walked through the front door to her home, she was confronted by her mother with a tray with a plate of sandwiches and some fruit juice on it.

Buffy blinked and said a noncommittal "Mom."

"Buffy." Joyce replied in kind, "I thought you would like some food after patrolling."

"You're normally asleep when I come back." Buffy said, almost sounding concerned.

"I wasn't tired." Joyce lied, "So how was it?"

"Uneventful."

"But that's good. Isn't it?"

Buffy nodded obligingly, "Yes. Boring is good."

"I've told you I'm proud of you, haven't I?" Joyce asked.

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Yes mom. You have."

"I just wanted you to know before.. I just wanted you to know."

Buffy knew what she was going to say but ignored the grim forecast, "It's okay, mom. We'll get through this together."

"Do you want this?" Joyce asked, looking down at the tray of food in her hands, "The doctors said you need to eat."

"Yeah, I'll eat it. I just need to clean up first." Buffy said, sniffing herself and making an act that she was smelly.

"I'll be waiting in the kitchen then."

Joyce left for the kitchen and Buffy walked up the stairs towards the bathroom.

At the top of the stairs, Buffy stopped despite herself and turned towards Dawn's room.

She reached over and opened the door to Dawn's room and had to suppress call out to her sister. Joyce had kept her room exactly how she had left it. After a few long seconds of looking inside, Buffy closed the door. All the emotions that came rising up out of nowhere were too strange and overwhelming. The loss hit her the most but there were other feelings that she was too distraught to confront.

She started feeling ill when the phone rang and Joyce picked it up from downstairs.

"Yes. She's here." Joyce said from the kitchen and Buffy overheard her. Buffy was already running down the stairs before Joyce called out for her, "Buffy, phone for you."

Buffy took the phone and said "I'm here. What's happened?"

"Buffy, it's Kennedy. I didn't know who else to call. The watchers council aren't going to help me."

"Help with what?"

"Michael, he was taken by vampires and I don't have my powers."

Buffy blinked, "You don't have your powers?"

"That's what I said."

"Your eighteenth birthday wouldn't be coming up soon? Would it?"

"No, my seventeenth is tomorrow but what does that have to do with anything?"

Buffy sighed, "This can't be a coincidence. Has your watcher been having you train with crystals recently? Vibrational crystals?"

"All the time recently… Actually, ever since I've been getting weak. You think it's got something to do with it?"

Buffy groaned, "Seventeenth? I don't fricken believe this. Okay, Kennedy, tell me exactly where you are. Exactly."

OXOXOX

At the magic box, Giles kept the midnight oil burning as he went through several of his books with Daniel Jackson, the resident archaeological expert of the Stargate project.

In the middle of the room, Willow and Samantha Carter had the Buffybot's back panel open as they tried to repair it in the middle of the room at a large round wooden table.

Stargate's primary team, otherwise known as SG1, had arrived in Sunnydale on the same plane Buffy arrived in. As Giles was now realizing, they had brought along a lot more than just themselves too.

"The book of Taliesyn by Lord Evans of Blackmore." Giles declared in amazement as he looked through a small collection of occult works that Daniel had gotten his hands on, "And the Celestial emporium of benevolent knowledge. My lord, where did you get this?"

"The book of Taliesyn is new but I've had the emporium for years. I've just never been able to decipher the code it is written in."

Giles smiled, "And I should think not. It is composed mainly in senzar, the watery tongue. Without at least a working knowledge of Pehn it would be untranslatable."

"Pehn?"

"A demon language. It forms the base of quite a few other languages in the same manner as Latin does for much of Europe and English."

"Really? Please, tell me more." asked Daniel, intrigued.

At the table, Willow seemed to be getting somewhere with Samantha's help. While Willow was great with computers, Samantha was better suited to repair the robot as she had the experience in engineering.

"You know, I once had a robot copy made of me." Sam said conversationally to Willow.

"Really?" Willow asked, looking her up and down, "Well, you're not not pretty."

Samantha looked her oddly, "Uh, thanks. I think."

"Oh." said Willow, realizing the confusion, "Your robot copy wasn't a sexbot."

Samantha blinked, "Wait. This is a sexbot?"

Willow nodded and Sam asked "Why would you have a sexbot that looks like Buffy."

Willow sighed and explained, "I didn't make it. It was Spike's idea."

Samantha took this in, "The bleach blonde?"

"That's the one. Doing this was a new type of scary for him." Willow chuckled and frowned, "Are you sure it's okay for you to fix our robot?"

Samantha looked up from the robot and asked "Why wouldn't it be? That is beyond the obvious purpose of the robot?"

"Because you were ordered here to study the supernatural, weren't you?"

Sam forced a smile, "No, we weren't. We're on forced vacation. The administration has been up in arms after we shot down that Goa'uld ship and it crash landed in Nevada. The star gate project has been temporarily shut down."

"That doesn't make any sense." Willow said with a confused frown.

Sam shrugged, "I don't pretend to understand politics."

"No. Not that. The fact that you're having a vacation in Sunnydale."

"It was Daniel's idea but it's a good idea to use our down time effectively. We never know when we might get some more. General Hammond has been pushing for a thorough investigation into Sunnydale but it's been stymied by several key players."

"It's possible that they already know about the supernatural or are supernatural themselves." Willow theorized, "That doesn't mean they're evil though. They could just be trying to stop a witch hunt before it starts."

Sam raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "A witch hunt? I think we've moved on from that as a civilization."

Willow smirked, "Did I ever tell you about the time I was tied to stake and about to be burnt alive for being a witch?"

Sam chuckled then frowned, "Are you joking? I can't tell."

Right then, the door to the magic box opened and three giggling girls came in.

"Hey sugar daddy." Harmony called out to Giles as Anya and Faith held her upright.

"G Man, I gotta. Your girl's a lot of fun once you get her juiced up." Faith laughed as they plopped Harmony down on a chair, "She's a real party girl."

"You got her drunk?" Giles asked in anger, "Anya, you were supposed to be watching out for her."

Anya frowned, "I was watching her. She only had one drink."

"Two." Harmony corrected, "It was the tequila that really did it."

Giles walked over to Harmony at the table where everyone had collected and asked her, "Are you okay?"

Harmony nodded with a demented grin, "I'm more than fine. I had so much fun. Faith is actually a really good dancer. And have you noticed how she looks a lot better when you're drunk? I think I might be gay."

Faith looked at Harmony for a second until the blonde burst into laughter, "I had you. I so had you."

After putting down some books, Daniel walked up to the table and asked "I wouldn't have thought vampires could get drunk."

"It normally takes a lot more than this." Anya answered, "I'm not sure what happened."

"It could be her medication." theorized Samantha.

"Medication?" Willow asked.

"The chocolate." Samantha clarified, "Upon analysis, it was found to have some mild narcotics. They might mix with alcohol to create a stronger agent."

"So you're fixing my bottie, huh?" Faith asked Willow as she looked over the red heads shoulder.

"Yes, we're fixing it." Willow said in an almost defeated tone.

Samantha frowned just slightly, "I thought it was that vampires toy."

Faith shrugged, "It's a long story."

"Which you don't want to know." Willow added.

Faith sat down on the edge of the table and said "Oh hey, Giles. Me and the girls were talking about the spell we did, where me and Xander where in my body. It was sooo weird. Like to me, breasts are just kinda funny but to Xander, they're the most important thing in the world. And it was so funny how he was repressing how I found Angel and Spike hot. So how was it in Buffy, G?"

Giles took off his glasses and rubbed them furiously, "She was uh, I don't think it's appropriate to talk about it."

"She can't have orgasms." Harmony said off-handedly, making Giles blink.

"I told you not to repeat that." Giles scolded Harmony.

"I'm sorry. It just came out." Harmony apologized poorly, "And it's majorly funny."

"Buffy can't orgasm?" Willow asked, shocked, "My god. That's so sad."

"This actually explains a lot." Faith said, looking thoughtful

"It does, doesn't it?" Anya agreed.

"And I don't mean just because she's a bitch." Faith added, "Remember that time I swapped bodies with her? During that time I shagged Riley and he really couldn't get me off. I thought it was just him. If I had known that it biologically impossible for her to get off, I would've nicked someone else's body. Like, I dunno, Harmony's. That's be wicked."

"Aww, thanks." said Harmony, truly complemented.

"No really. It would." Faith told her, patting her on the back, "You could go to the beach and I could, uh, kill Buffy or something. Hmm. What do vampires do for fun?"

Anya sighed, "Everything you do. They party and have gratuitous amounts of sex for fun."

"How'd you know that?" Harmony asked her, "Have you been reading my diary?"

Giles hemmed, "Now everyone. You can't tell anyone else. This is a deeply personal part of Buffy's life and we have no right to alienate her because of this."

"It's more common that you would think." Samantha Carter told the group, "Not every woman is biologically able to do that… But not me. I can just fine."

Faith chuckled as Samantha turned red, "Okay then. From now on, when I feel like doing some evil, I'll just remind myself that Buffy can't even have an orgasm and I'll get this warm fuzzy feeling all over. This is great. If only I knew about this sooner, we could've stopped that whole giant snake business before it even happened."

Buffy gasped, "I can't believe you told them that."

Everyone turned to see Buffy and Paige Matthews standing outside the door to the training room.

"Oh man, I am in so much trouble." Harmony said with dread.

Buffy clenched her fist for a second then said "Giles. Can I have a talk to you in the other room?"

Giles nodded meekly and followed Buffy into the training room and closed the door behind him.

"Woo! That was tense." said Paige, once those two left the room, "And hey look, the whole gang is still up. I thought I was a night owl."

Her face scrunched up in just the cutest way when she tried to figure out the robot which looked remarkably like Buffy.

"Hi Paige." Willow said with a little confusion also, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just a little midnight errand in Cleveland." Paige said as the voices in the other room started rising.

" Cleveland?" Anya asked, "There's a hellmouth there."

Faith nodded, "Been there. It can get as bad as Sunnydale. So you're here for reinforcements?"

Paige nodded in a so-so way as the sounds of weapon play was heard in the other room.

"Oh god. Someone has to do something." cried Harmony, not getting out of her chair, "She's killing him."

Before anyone had the chance, the door opened up again and Buffy came through with a short sword. Giles came back out with nothing to show for it.

"Got what we wanted here." Buffy told Paige, "It's time for Cleveland."

"Hey. Aren't you going to take some of us?" Faith asked.

Buffy expression didn't change, "No. I'll handle this one."

Paige put her hand on Buffy's shoulder and the two girls orbed out of the room.

Anya turned to Faith and asked "Since when were you so eager to help?"

Faith shrugged, "Thought it'd be a kick to see Cleveland again."

OXOXOX

The interior of Kennedy's hotel room flashed blue for a second.

Kennedy awoke with a stir, pulled the crossbow off the table and pointed it in Buffy's general direction.

"Kennedy. It's me." Buffy told her, "Just put the medieval down."

Kennedy stood up and stared, sleepily "Buffy? H-how?"

"Kennedy, meet Paige. She's a very powerful witch."

Kennedy sighed and put down the crossbow, "You flew here?"

"We orbed." Paige told her, "Think teleportation."

"Great. So what are we going to do?" asked Kennedy.

"We're going to find your watcher and deal with the vampires." Buffy told her, "But first, there's some things I have to tell you."

"I still need a personal item if we're going to scry for him." Paige told Buffy.

"A personal item?" Kennedy asked, "Would his suitcase do? It's right there."

"It's a start." replied Paige as she opened up the suitcase Kennedy had pointed to and searched through it for something a little more personal than a piece of luggage.

OXOXOX

Michael Armitage frowned where he was gagged and tied down into a chair. The vampires had appropriated the half empty warehouse right next to where they had kidnapped him. They were obviously hoping that Kennedy would come back to look for a trace of him and they would have the chance to grab her this time instead of her watcher.

The vampire master was pacing back and forth, obviously not wanting to be there anymore than he did. The sun was going to rise in five more hours and they didn't want to be there when it did. The warehouse looked like it could just be a storage facility but that didn't mean it wouldn't be getting traffic. That meant that the vampires couldn't really stay there without bringing attention to themselves.

"I don't think she's coming." one of the lesser vampires told him.

"Shut up." the master shot back.

"We should turn the guy or at least torture him." said another vampire, "Then we'll be able to know where the slayer lives."

"No, we won't." the master said through gritted teeth, "We will only kill the Slayer."

The other vampires were getting tired of the master's strange demands on them. It made more sense to Michael, who recognized the gaudy ruby necklace around the masters neck for what it really was. It was the active ingredient in a magical form of hypnotism. Whoever put it on the vampire had obviously directed him to kill his Slayer but no one else. He didn't understand the reasoning behind this as a vampire would jump at a chance to drain a powerless Slayer.

"Hey!" one of the vampires whispered from the window, "There she is. I can't believe how stupid she is."

Michael heart sank when he heard this and he tried to cry out a warning but the gag muffled it too much to be any good.

"You five. Knock her out if you want but bring her back here." The master told them, "We'll play a little game with her before we kill her."

Five of the vampires left eagerly, leaving only six behind, including the master.

"Not long to wait now." the master vampire said with a smile as a soft blue light flooded the dark room.

"Not long at all." Buffy agreed as Paige and Kennedy both brought up a crossbow each.

They fired and took out a vampire each then Buffy moved forward, sword in hand. She spun, whipping the sword out as she did and decapitated two of the vampires with ease. Another vampire slashed at her with a knife and she cut his knife arm off for his trouble.

As he screamed, Buffy shoved him off to the side and two crossbow bolts later, he became so much dust.

Buffy stopped when she saw that the master had brought out his own sword, a rapier. By the way he held it, she guessed that he learnt fencing when he was at school. Her own sword, a modern teflon coated junglee short sword was designed more for utility and raw dependability with a machete like action while the rapier was a sword truly just for killing people.

Taking this into consideration, she moved forward and the vampire darted back from her blow and then thrust forward, just missing Buffy as she dodged to the side.

They both feinted, keeping each other on guard but the vampire had the added disadvantage of needing Buffy to stay in between him and the two girls with crossbows.

Buffy figured this out and dived to the side, leaving him an open target. He quickly moved to put her back in the firing path but Buffy drew towards him with a spinning series of slashes with her sword, a combo from kung fu originally designed for the machete. It was something she had picked up while Giles was in her head. He actually knew quite a few esoteric martial art tricks which he had never bothered to teach her or maybe she just hadn't been bothered to learn.

The vampire kept the close distance and was actually holding his ground against Buffy until his rapier broke in two, not really designed for that sort of torture.

Before Buffy could decapitate the master vampire, he moved in and grabbed her sword arm by the back of the elbow. When he stabbed forwards with the broken point of his sword, Buffy jumped up and wrapped her leg around the inside of his arm and twisted. She got a painful but superficial wound up her leg as the sword scraped along it and she was now being held in midair by the vampire but none of that mattered as she pulled out a stake and jabbed him in the chest with her free hand.

The vampire tossed her away and fell down but didn't dust. Instead, he got back up and laughed manically as his eyes and the bejeweled medallion he wore smoldered with a fiery red glow. To make matters worse, the vampires he had sent off after their diversion had come back.

Not feeling good about that at all, Buffy somersaulted towards the vampire and after the first spin she landed both feet on his chest. This propelled the vampire ten feet and back towards the crowd of vampires who had just arrived. Before she even landed, she threw her sword and it cut through the air with a hiss and cut through the masters head with a sticky wet sound.

A snake of fire burst out of the vampires neck and snapped around like a spewing fire-hose left to it's own devices. The vampires around the master were caught by the flames instantly and the warehouse was becoming a smoke filled deathtrap quicker than Buffy thought imaginable.

She coughed and ran towards to where Kennedy was untying Michael.

As soon as he got his gag off, Michael said "Kennedy, You're alive. Thank goodness."

Kennedy replied by a fist to his face and "I should kill you myself."

"Kennedy, this isn't the time." Buffy told her and forced her into a huddle with Paige.

Paige grabbed the watcher and then orbed everyone out of there.

On a rooftop, a watcher which most people only knew as Travers was watching the blaze of the warehouse with a pair of binoculars. The two watchers on either side of him were impressed by the power of the artifact they had used on the vampire.

"I didn't expect her to actually defeat the vampire." Travers said to himself, as if he was the only person worth talking to.

"Do you think she survived that?" the watcher on his right asked.

Travers raised an eyebrow and looked at him in contempt, "I shouldn't think so. No, I'll have the trackers start looking for the next one tomorrow morning. I just hope this one is worth our time. It's so sad having to do this but it must be done."

OXOXOX

Watcher's council, England.

Most of the board of watchers were sitting down at a long boardroom table, eating crumpets and sipping tea. One of them was reading the morning sun and a few were even talking about a cricket match that was on the telly last night. The scene had more stereotype than you could poke a stick at.

Then the main door into the room burst open and the idyllic peace and quiet was ruined.

When the watchers turned to see what the commotion was, Buffy tossed a burly, mostly unconscious watcher onto the table, so that they skidded along it and tipped over crumpets and teacups left and right.

"You didn't have to hit him that hard." Paige told Buffy.

"Yes I did." Buffy replied, obviously in a violent zone.

"We're not supposed to be in here." Kennedy told them.

Buffy smiled without humor, "Then this is exactly where I want to be."

The watchers got up out of their chairs, some of them batting at the scolding hot tea which spilt over their pants.

"I'll teach you a lesson, girl." an older watcher practically cackled and he started chanting something occult sounding. He brought up a walking stick with a giant glowing red gem on the top.

"Walking stick." Paige called for it and it disappeared out of the watchers hands into hers. Then she broke it over her knee with more ease than she thought it would take.

"You broke my staff." he gibbered, "My staff."

'You're lucky that's all I broke." Paige yelled at him, "What do you think you were doing? Using magic on two girls that you're supposed to be working for?"

"What is the meaning of this?" a different, flustered watcher asked, "Wh-who are you?"

"My friends call me Buffy. You can call me Slayer."

"And I'm Kennedy. The other Slayer." Kennedy added.

Buffy looked up at Paige and the witch said "I'm just a friend. Don't mind me."

"You're supposed to be in Cleveland." One of the watchers blurted out.

Buffy nudged her sister Slayer and Kennedy was prompted to say "But I'm not. I'm here looking for an explanation."

"You were going to put her through the cruciamentum one year early." Buffy told them, "Not only that but you were going to put her through the cruciamentum. I thought you would learn from what happened when I went through it."

"It has come to our attention that Kennedy is in fact older than we previously believed. One year older to be precise." said Kinsley, one of the watcher's trackers.

Kennedy frowned, "But that would've made me well over seventeen and a half when I got called. There's never been a Slayer called that old."

"There have been a few rare cases." Kinsley corrected her.

"Oh and I passed that cruciamental thing." Kennedy said with a big smile, "I've already slain three vampires without my powers tonight.. and I maimed one too."

"But not the vampire you were assigned." one of the more cocky watchers told her, "And you let your watcher become captured."

"I didn't let anything." Kennedy yelled back, "It was like ten vampires against me without any powers. Besides, he's okay now."

"We would expect you to save him by yourself." Another watcher piped in, "I would say you failed the test."

"I thought the only way you could fail would be to die." Buffy pondered then glared at the watchers, "Oh you can't be serious."

"What?" Kennedy asked.

Paige gasped, "They wouldn't."

"Wouldn't what?" Kennedy asked, oblivious.

Talking directly to the watchers, Buffy asked "Did you just sentence Kennedy to death? Because that's what it sounds like."

"Yes. We did." said one of the braver watchers, "And if you'll listen to reason, you'll understand why."

Buffy blinked at them then shrugged, "Okay. Tell me what your reasons are. This'll be good."

At the head of the table a watcher, who was in charge of the council while Travers was away on business, pushed an intercom button and said into it, "Janice, could you please bring into the boardroom the current Slayer's psych evaluation?"

"Right away sir." was the reply.

"Psych eval?" Buffy asked Kennedy who shrugged.

A short time later, a secretary opened the doors to the boardroom and tentatively walked in, obviously scared of the three girls who had broken their way into the inner sanctum of the watchers council.

"Please give Miss Summers the files." the Head told the secretary, "From what I understand, she is currently studying psychology at Sunnydale University."

"That's right." Buffy agreed as she was handed the folder.

She opened it with interest, which quickly turned to confusion.

"This can't be right." Buffy told them, looking at Kennedy a bit oddly.

"I assure you, it is." said the head.

What Buffy was reading looked like a list of charges, each one condemning Kennedy.

Buffy frowned as she read the file again, "Okay. I don't know what that word means but I know this one, Lesbianism. You think she's gay?"

Kennedy gasped, "Uh, I am actually. I don't know how they found that out though."

Buffy blinked at Kennedy and the head Watcher said "It's a symptom that you too have acquired, Summers."

Buffy groaned, "I'm NOT a lesbian goddamnit! If I ever meet Riley Finn again I'm going to kick his ass for saying that."

"It's a symptom?" Paige asked, "A symptom of what?"

"Of being a Slayer." The head clarified, "In normal circumstances we would never let this be known but it doesn't matter how good a Slayer is at their job, what makes them a slayer will eventually kill them. It literally destroys their mind over time. There is a list of personality traits to a dark Slayer. That is, a Slayer which has turned away from the light and embraced evil. There are twenty three symptoms and no Slayer has ever had more than sixteen without turning evil. Kennedy has eighteen right now which means that she will soon become the enemy."

"And how many do I have?" Buffy asked.

"You have fourteen." the head told her, "But we believe that your condition is being tempered by your proximity to your family and friends. To put it bluntly, the fact that you no longer act as a Slayer is the only thing that is saving you. We would allow all our Slayers to live in such a way if it weren't for the pressing matter of the war we are fighting which requires their contribution."

"Do you guys ever listen to yourself?" Buffy asked angrily, "Haven't you ever heard of the benefit of the doubt? I'm not going to let you kill her just because she might turn out like Faith."

"Faith was as an even more ideal candidate for Slayerhood than Kennedy here and that's saying a lot." The head told Buffy, "When we first discovered Faith, she had just ran away from the witness protection program in America. At first we feared that she was involved in some loathsome criminal activity or she was raised by the mob but what we found was quite the opposite."

This being news to Buffy, she curiously asked "What did you find?"

"A girl who had already shown more courage and resourcefulness than all of the potential slayers we have under our care combined. She should have been amazing, not a monster. Had we known of Faith's life as a potential Slayer when we first picked her up, we would have given her vastly more competent watchers."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "You're talking about Faith here? The bone head Slayer who joined the bad guys?"

The Head nodded, "Hard to believe, isn't it? Watchers dream about receiving girls like her. No one could've predicted how far she would fall. We believe it is because the Slayer power itself is under stress from having two Slayers at the same time. Fortunately, we believe that Kennedy will be the last Slayer to be afflicted in this way as you, the source of the problem, will soon either fall to the hands of some threat or kill yourself due to this new knowledge we are handing you."

"So what's the whole Slayer part of the deal about then?" Buffy asked, "I'm talking about how we hang around in graveyards and slay things. What's that? Just something to distract us with while we slowly go insane?"

By the looks Buffy was getting, some of the watchers there believed this was the case.

"After all the things that have happened to me over the years, I'd say going crazy is a mild reaction." Buffy told the watchers, "But despite what you think and despite how much I hate it sometimes, I'm still a Slayer. So what I'm going to do is save the innocent girl from the big bad monsters who want to kill her. And if I ever see any of you in my town, I'll break something painful. Either that or my friends will break something for me. I never want to hear from you again unless it's something important like the world ending. So until the next Slayer comes along, you'll have to fight your battles alone. You do know how to do that, don't you?"

"Miss Summers." The Head tried to reason with her, "You must allow us to fulfill our sacred duty, to stop evil. And she is evil. You just haven't realized it yet."

Buffy turned to Paige and said "Could you take us to Kennedy's hotel room please? To pick up her luggage?"

Paige nodded and orbed the three of them out of the room, much to the watchers amazement.

Seeing that the coast was clear, the watchers all let out a sigh of relief and settled back down in their chairs. One of them ran for the toilets as they had lost bladder control almost as soon as the two Slayers had arrived.

"This is going to get messy." The temporary head said grimly.

OXOXOX

The next day at the Summers household.

Kennedy was in the bathroom, stripped down to her underwear so that she could look at her bruised body. Since becoming a Slayer, bruises were never a problem but after tackling vampires without her powers, she was covered in them.

While that was her original intention, she found herself holding a razor sharp kris to her wrist, in preparation to slit it. She tried to force the knife down but she wasn't strong enough.

"Kennedy?" Joyce called from outside the door, "We're going soon. Did you want to come?"

Kennedy stared at the door and back down at the blade in her hands in panic.

Joyce knocked on the door again, "Kennedy? Are you in there?"

"Coming right out." Kennedy called as she put the knife back in it's sheath and hastily put her clothes back on.

As she walked out of the bathroom, she bumped into Buffy at the top of the stairs and hugged her.

Buffy was surprised at first and then a little confused when the hug lasted a bit too long.

"You get that I'm not a lesbian, right?" Buffy asked.

Kennedy laughed awkwardly and released Buffy, "Sorry. And yes. I know you're not a lesbian. I'm just trying to be supportive. I know I suck at it."

"No. It's good. Hugs. I'm all for hugging." Buffy said just as awkwardly, "You know, you could stay here. We wouldn't mind."

"No. I think I'll stay at the mansion. Your mom is nice and all but I think I'd prefer to stay somewhere where I can bring a girl home without getting strange looks."

Buffy gave her a strange look, "Do you do that often? Bring girls home?"

"No but I've never been able to before. I'm looking forward to it, enjoying this new found freedom. It's liberating."

Buffy nodded, "Yes. I can tell by the cold sweat of terror you're wearing. Relax, Kennedy. I don't think the watchers will try anything in Sunnydale. Not just yet anyway. That means we've got some time to put lock down the mansion and make it a vault. Xander's looking into it for you."

"Xander, he seemed nice." Kennedy remembered, "Are you two..?"

"No, definitely not. He's engaged to Anya. But Xander's a great guy. Very helpful. Sometimes too helpful. All I can say is it's a good thing he doesn't bruise easily. Anyway, I've got to get ready."

Buffy walked away without another word and moved to her bedroom to dress again. Kennedy decided that she should change too.

OXOXOX

The drive to the cemetery was a slow, quiet one. Joyce drove while Buffy and Kennedy were in the back seat, with Kennedy's hand on Buffy's. Any other time, Buffy would be saying something about how she's not a lesbian but she had realized that it was just an attempt to be comforting, so she welcomed it.

Joyce parked and they all got out in a business fashion and made their way towards the funeral.

Most of the Scoobies were there. All the ones who could walk in the sunlight at least. Faith had come along too, although no one would have said anything if she didn't. But none of her friends from school came. Buffy was sure she had some, at least one. Didn't she bring home a friend once? A really short girl called Joan and Jane or something?

"I'm glad you could come." Buffy whispered to Faith as the dark slayer moved aside to let her into the circle of friends, "Dawn would have appreciated it."

Faith nodded sadly, "I almost didn't. I couldn't find anything to wear."

"You look fine." Buffy told her and this seemed to please Faith a little.

The newcomers settled into place around the casket which was sealed closed. The funeral was strictly a closed casket after since it was explained to Joyce that Dawn's body had showed some disturbing discoloration after she passed away and it would be disturbing for loved ones to see her that way.

"Are we supposed to do something?" Anya asked Xander quietly.

He patted her hand and said "The minister will come shortly."

"I can't do this. It's too soon." Buffy sobbed and she ran off, leaving the others stunned.

"I'll go after her." Giles told them calmly and he chased off after Buffy.

Giles didn't have to run that far as he found her fallen over, on her knees, hiding behind a mausoleum.

"Buffy." Giles said gently.

"Don't look at me."

"Ssh, it's okay." Giles told her as he knelt down to hold her.

"No it's not."

"This is a lot to take in."

"I'm Buffy. The reliable one. The sane one. Who am I if I'm not that person?"

"What do you mean?" Giles asked.

Buffy looked up at Giles and said "I'm losing my mind."

"No you're not." Giles hushed her.

"I am. I haven't been right since we did that spell. Something went wrong and now.. now I'm losing myself."

"I knew something was wrong but I didn't stop. I'm so sorry."

"I wouldn't let you." Buffy told him, "It's not your fault."

"We'll work through this, together. You're stronger than you think you are. I know this from being inside your head. You're stronger than I could ever hope to be."

Buffy looked at Giles with pain filled eyes and said "Giles. I want you to do something. A favor."

"What?"

"There's something wrong with the Slayers. All of them. It started when Xander brought me back to life. We're all going crazy. I just.. Tell the others this, okay? I don't want to end up like Faith. If I do something, I want you to handle it."

Giles looked horrified at the implications of what she was asking, "Buffy, it won't come to that."

"I want you to promise, please." Buffy begged him.

Giles, seeing no way around this bowed his head in defeat, "Okay Buffy. I promise. Just remember that whatever happens, you're still Buffy."

Giles helped her to her feet and they made their way back to funeral, Buffy crying freely all the way.

Maybe if she hadn't been crying, she would have noticed the man with the zoom-lensed spy camera who was taking shots of everyone at the funeral. He left as soon as the service began, walking casually away to remove suspicion.

OXOXOX

FIN

Well, wasn't that sickliest piece of lard I've written for a while? Frankly, I don't feel compelled to write anymore on this piece. I already feel like a masochist for writing as much as I did… which would explain a lot.

I think in the next piece I'll keep the Slayer angst at a minimum and go for vampire angst instead, yeah. :

heh.


End file.
